the term vietcong had not been invented. actually the term vietcong was invented by the south vietnamese government. there were a few communist guerillas left over from the struggle against the french. they would occasionally pop up to stage quick raids and disappear. we had an ambassador there, the american ambassador by the name of eldridge der borrow, a rolly, poly figure with a rather rotarian manner whose gawk i can wife insisted on wearing the vietnamese dress in which she looked rather ridiculous. at the time the only foreign reporters in sigh gong with a handful of stringers and visitors like myself from hong kong. evidently unaware that vietnam had been a nation for about 3,000 years, der borrow kept telling us that one of america s priorities was nation building which meant converting the vietnamese into being facsimile americans. he was always promoting schemes of one sort or another to achieve that objective. one which had been invented earlier by colonel ed lands